The Soviets went with FIAT as a gesture of support
for the Italian Communist Party, and not because they'd cross-shopped FIATs against the other capitalists or looked them up in Consumer Reports. FIATs of that era were not the greatest cars in the
world by any means--the running joke was that "FIAT" stood for "Fix It Again,
Tony!" They would have done better to have the KGB grab a couple of base-model Chevy Novas with a straight six and reverse-engineer them, but the quality of the product took a back seat to fraternal socialist solidarity and geopolitical objectives.

The licensed FIATs were built by a state-owned enterprise called VAZ, which stood for "Volzhsky Avtomobilny Zavod"--"Volga Automobile Factory." Even with the Italians' (dubious) technical help, VAZ and the other Soviet carbuilders could never come close to building
enough cars to satisfy domestic demand--and didn't do a particularly
good job of building the ones they did manage to build. Nevertheless, those that were assembled on a day when they weren't "storming" to meet the monthly quota made up for in ruggedness and ease of maintenance what they lacked in sophistication and refinement. There are
more than a few still to be seen on Russian streets today. Here's one, a lovably homely VAZ 2104 wagon parked in St. Petersburg:And here's another one:

This is a VAZ-2103, the sedan counterpart to the wagon above in a nicer-than-base trim level, on the back of a tow truck.

This VAZ sedan, spotted in Moscow, appeared to be in working order.

Built from 1970 to 1988, the VAZ 2100-series cars were also known as the "Zhiguli," which is Russian for "more pathetic than a Trabant" the name of a mountain range by the Volga river. Those sold in other countries were branded as the "Lada," a nameplate that was later used on home-market cars as well, such as this one:

Here's one more Lada, parked next to a Toyota sedan not much different from the ones we have here in the States.

Note the Zhiguli sedan directly across the street from the wagon, next to what looks like a ten- or fifteen-year old Mopar minivan.

As the presence of the minivan and the Toyota and the bright blue Peugeot wagon in the photo above demonstrates, car buyers in post-Communist Russia have a lot more choices these days. All of the major players in the global car business are active in the Russian market. For instance, Volvo,...

...Mitsubishi,...

...Hyundai, Ford,...

...General Motors (Opel),...

...Renault,...

...and VW.Alex saw so many gray 4-door VW Mk. 5 Golfs and GTIs that he started to think I'd followed him to Russia.

While there are a lot of imports, the domestic Russian auto industry is still in operation, under capitalist ownership. Here's a 21st-century Lada built by AutoVAZ, the private-sector successor to VAZ.

In a country where the winter runs from September to May and the annual snowfall is measured in meters, SUVs and crossovers are understandably quite popular. The little fella on the right in the next photo is a Neva, the Russian equivalent of a small Jeep.
Widespread ownership of private autos is still a relatively new thing in the old Eastern Bloc countries, and Russian city traffic can be, well, a little chaotic.

The often-anarchic traffic, and somewhat arbitrary and capricious law enforcement, are why so many Russians have installed dashboard cameras in their cars.

Though Russia is a very different place, with Toyota Camrys crowding the streets laid out by Peter the Great...

I haven't been to Russia, but I have been to Ukraine twice and was very interested in the cars. Ukrainians face giant import duties on foreign cars. When I was there in 2008 they could double the price of a car. New or used. There is a plant that builds foreign cars under license, so there are lots of those cars. Mostly Hyundai in Kiev. It was also my first exposure to Chinese cars and Chery dealers are everywhere although most people I talked to had a low opinion of the Chinese cars. In the capital, most of the cars were new and foreign. Most of the pictures I took of cars were of Fords and Nissans and others that were not available here. I rented a Skoda Fabia (Czech) which I loved.
Outside of Kiev, most taxis were old Lada's from the 80's or 90's. they were super primitive, but really rugged and durable. Also fairly comfortable. The roads in Ukraine at the time could have potholes in potholes. Cars with fancy rims and low profile sidewalls would pay a hefty price to look stylish. I understand they improved them for the World Cup games, but the winters take a toll so giant potholes are always ready to appear.